Published: Oct 27, 2015, 05:35 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 28, 2015, 12:07 PM (IST)
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has hit out at India Team Director Ravi Shastri for his heated confrontation with the pitch curator of the Wankhede Stadium Sudhir Naik. Manjrekar made the statement earlier on Tuesday, two days after India were handed a massive 214-run thrashing at the hands of South Africa in the fifth and final match of the One-Day International (ODI) series in Mumbai. Shastri was said to have got into an argument with Naik, who was praised for the quality of the Wankhede pitch in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final. “Ravi Shastri completely out of line to abuse Sudhir Naik, curator at Wankhede. Showed disrespect to age & fellow test cricketer,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying according to a post on his Twitter account.
The Shastri-Naik spat, which has only worsened the state of Indian cricket following one of it’s worst-ever defeats in ODI cricket, will be investigated upon by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), according to a latest statement made by the cricket body that administers the Mumbai Cricket team. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur had said on Monday that the board would look into the details of the confrontation between the two parties. READ: MCA to investigate Ravi Shastri-Sudhir Naik spat
“We will look into the details of Team Director (Shastri) allegedly confronting curator of Wankhede Stadium yesterday. We had done the same in (sic) Australia (without referring to incident of apparently Kohli and Indian journo). Same yardstick will be applied,” Thakur was quoted as saying.
Ravi Shastri completely out of line to abuse Sudhir Naik, curator at Wankhede. Showed disrespect to age & fellow test cricketer.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) October 27, 2015
In his complaint, Naik said Shastri used unparliamentary language while telling him what he thought about the ODI pitch midway through match and bowling coach B Arun also fired his assistant Mamunkar on the same issue. He also said in the complaint that the Indian team management wanted a spinning pitch which was not possible at the 11th hour. India lost the match by 214 runs to concede the series 2-3.
